Opportunities for the development of ecological competence of the future preschool teachers

Abstract

The preschool period plays a key role in environmental education and shaping attitudes towards the environment. It is therefore important that preschool teachers are equipped to provide students with the necessary training in their early stages. This study aims to evaluate the new opportunities for the development of the ecological competencies of future preschool teachers in terms of the views of pre-service teachers. This research was conducted using a qualitative design. The participants of the research consisted of 33 students studying in the 3rd and 4th grades of the preschool teaching department at various universities in Kazakhstan in the 2021-2022 academic year. As a data collection tool, the researchers created a semi-structured interview form. From the result of the research, pre-school teacher candidates found themselves at a medium level in terms of ecological competencies. Pre-school teacher candidates evaluated ecological attitudes and behaviors in the categories of environmental awareness, sensitivity, and volunteerism.
 
 Keywords: Ecological competencies; pre-school; teacher candidates

Development of future elementary school teachers' professional self-education readiness through interactive teaching methods

“…The findings also revealed that the independent efforts of students aimed at overcoming this contradiction are ineffective. The generally recognized shortcomings of university training are that students are overloaded with volumes of material being studied, insufficient development of independent work skills and a lack of self-realization skills (Nagima et al, 2023;Zhakupova, Kyakbaeva, Karimova, & Omarova, 2022).…”

Perspectives of Environmental Awareness in University Students

“…Given the great ecological and socioeconomic problems worldwide produced by hyper competitive approaches introduced by corporate organizations in recent years it is necessary to focus on commercially sustainable strategies (Pascucci et al, 2022), therefore, a great goal that is sought to be achieved in the industrial sector is the implementation of responsible business practices by entrepreneurs thus contributing to responsible economic growth (Del Brio et al, 2022), since, unsustainable and irresponsible consumption and production threaten nature and therefore the human being, for this reason, throughout the world many professionals focus on sustainability issues and adopt ecological strategies to preserve the environment (X. . Since a few years ago, developing countries are generating more and more waste in daily life (D. Want et al, 2022), for this, a way to quantitatively evaluate the sustainability of study centers is applying the ecological footprint method based on its application and consumption (Genta et al, 2022), on the other hand, the school and preschool stage play a fundamental role in environmental education and in the formation of good attitudes towards the environment (Zhakupova et al, 2022), because public awareness about the care of the environment plays an important role in the implementation of environmental strategies and policies (Gherhes et al, 2022).…”